BELLEVUE
REPORTER
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SPORTS | Bellevue middle-schooler garners verbal scholarship offer for football [12] People | Arbor Day brings out more than 500 volunteers around Bellevue for celebration, restoration [10]
Community | City names Jan King, left, and Cathy Habib as Volunteers of Year [2]
FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2013
City picks light rail options BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
The Bellevue City Council has voted for its preferred cost savings options on the future East Link alignment. The 6-0 vote could save the city up to $53 million. Monday’s decision will leave the city short of its $60 million goal, though as residents pointed out at a public hearing last week, city funding would be the last money into the project. After emotional testimony from residents heavily rep-
resenting the Surrey Downs and Enatai neighborhoods, the council chose a set of options that they hoped would preserve quality of life, rather than saving Bellevue the most money. “Our number one priority has been to protect our neighborhoods,” said Mayor Conrad Lee. “And we accomplished that tonight.” Though the decision will still need to be finalized by Sound Transit at a meeting Thursday afternoon (after the Reporter’s deadline), council’s vote approved the following:
The City Council opted for an elevated downtown station instead of one underground. SEE LIGHT RAIL, 11
Bill Shaw named regional publisher Position includes Bellevue, 3 other papers
cal Center, and neighbors report being trapped in their homes for up to five hours as the raid and subsequent investigation were conducted. A month later, the trauma of that morning is still rippling out through the community. Residents called a community meeting Monday to voice their concerns and demand answers from the Bellevue and Seattle Police departments. Among those who attended were
William Shaw, a fourth generation Eastsider, has been named Regional Publisher of the Bellevue Reporter, Mercer Island Reporter, the Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter and the Snoqualmie Valley Record. Shaw’s longtime professional focus has been as a print media advertising consultant in the local retail, major, national and real estate categories. Shaw started in 1998 as an advertising executive with the former Journal-American. From 2002 William Shaw to 2006 he was Advertising Sales and Special Projects Manager for Horvitz Newspapers (the former Eastside Journal and later King County Journal) and for Sound Publishing, where in 2007, he was designated as Marketing Director for the newly formed Reporter Newspaper Group division of Sound Publishing, including the then newly established Bellevue Reporter. In 2008, he was made Publisher of the weekly Snoqualmie Valley Record, overseeing the operations of the community newspaper, which will be observing its 100th anniversary this fall. In 2012, Shaw also was made Publisher of the Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter. "Shaw is a great community builder that brings a high level of experience and proven performance to the group publishing role," said Josh O'Connor, Vice President of East Sound Newspaper Operations. "Bill's connection to the commu-
SEE SHOOTING, 11
SEE SHAW, 7
A car sits in the middle the street in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood where robbery suspect Russell Smith was shot and killed by members of the Bellevue Police Department SWAT team as they attempted to serve a warrant COURTESY PHOTO, Neighbors of 43rd Ave. S.
Seattle neighborhood wants answers in fatal shooting by Bellevue SWAT team BY CELINA KAREIVA BELLEVUE REPORTER
Forty-third Avenue South, near South Hudson Street in Seattle's Columbia City area is a quiet, dead end road. Kids play in one another’s backyard and residents regularly swap emails about neighborhood news. So when John Russell awoke on the morning of March 22, around 5 a.m. to gunshots, his first thought was to hit the ground, then call 9-1-1. That was before Russell, who’s lived on the block for 10 years, knew what was unfolding
outside his bedroom window. Russell would later learn that Bellevue SWAT was serving a warrant for neighbor and robbery suspect, Russell Smith, at the home of his brother, Rydell Smith. Upon arriving, police found Russell Smith in his gold Mercedes. According to a statement released by the BPD, Smith reversed his car into a Ford pick-up truck parked behind him. When he switched gears, police say they feared he was going to run them over, and opened fire. Smith later died at Harborview Medi-
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